Kim chee? Puh-leeze.

Who is Kim Kardashian? And why does anyone in the world care about her or her marriage?

I know, she’s the ox-eyed, dark-haired creature that graces the covers of most every magazine you can buy next to the supermarket cash register. But who is she? And why would I care?

Why would anyone care?

Yet care they do.

The story of her filed 72-day marriage is the most popular story this morning on USAToday.com. It’s been recommended by 1,361 people on latimes.com. And it’s a hot story on washingtonpost.com. You could find it, too, on nytimes.com, though where it is now, I don’t know. And again, in case you didn’t get the message the first time, I don’t care.

I don’t watch television, so that puts me at a disadvantage when it comes to the vapid world of celebrities that fill the gossip pages. Even stories on “Dancing with the Stars” includes tidbits on Kim K. because her brother, Rob, is one of the remaining contestants. (I study ballroom dancing, so that show does have some tangential interest, but I don’t watch it, either.)

Yesterday, the news of her marital mistake managed to eclipse news that one of the presidential candidates had been accused of sexual harassment. And that, in turn, eclipsed reports that his campaign may or may not have claims of funding irregularities facing it. (The latter is far more serious than the former, but less “sexy” in type, so we’ll focus on how he treats women instead of where his campaign money is coming from.)

Yes, we are a shallow people. But on a certain level, we always have been (and by that I don’t mean Americans only. Read the Bible, ancient epics, the myths of the Greeks and the Chinese. We like flashy things, whether it’s bling or the human equivalent. And we are all prone to human error. The Greek gods were among the pettiest creations of all. Think of the mythical tale behind the Trojan War for evidence of that.

I just hope that we can muster enough courage and intellectual fortitude to prove the following letter on the Washington Post’s website wrong: “America is clearly only one election cycle away from a Kardashian as President.”